This reminds me of taking the family to San Francisco in 2004. It was the Fourth of July weekend. We planned to watch the fireworks from the roof of our hotel. When the time came, we found out that our hotel was at least twice the maximum altitude of the fireworks, which were set off from Alcatraz. Also, it was so foggy they looked like muted color blobs hidden by a cloud. Also it was about 45 degrees, which seemed weird for July to us tourists. (via Pleated-Jeans)
Mark Twain never said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." He should have.
ReplyDeleteI love the part about the muted color blobs bursting in air. I've seen a few 4th of July shows like that, but north of San Francisco, in Point Arena and Fort Bragg.
ReplyDeleteYou might be talking about the KFOG Kaboom, the annual fireworks show KFOG put on from a barge out in the water back then. Juanita and I would drive down to Berkeley and get on the train that goes under the bay and surprisingly far up into San Francisco, then walk back to the bay, go south under the Bay Bridge and then out onto big flat asphalt docks where they had a stage set up and big-name bands playing, and the biggest most tightly packed-in crowds I've ever been in. Then dark, and the fireworks. That event ran annually for fifteen years till, I think, 2010. We must have missed the fogged-in one that you saw.
What I remember most about those shows was getting there and getting home. Walking past indoor-outdoor restaurants of rich-looking people where the food probably cost as much as a car. And... one time, we were riding back to Berkeley on the train, and a tall fashion-model-like girl with coffee-colored skin, a barely-restrained tied-back tree of Afro hair, and startling bright green-blue eyes was sitting across from us. When we got off the train and were walking along the platform to the steps, I said, "Did you see that girl." Juanita said, "The one with the red shoes?"
When we were in Japan, they told us that it is actually quite rare to have a clear day when Mt Fuji can be fully and completely seen. It's beside a lake that is extremely prone to producing fog conditions.We caught a partial glimpse of Fuji, but it was certainly not the "picture postcard perfect" view that everyone expects.
ReplyDeleteYep, San Francisco, where i used to watch the morning fog go out closely followed by the afternoon fog coming in. But I'm thinking of the time I insisted to an old girlfriend that we stop to see the Grand Canyon, which I'd visited before and was overwhelmed by. After talking it up to her, we arrived and found it full of fog. You couldn't see a thing. "I don't see what the big deal is about this place," she said.
ReplyDeleteThe wise traveler goes to San Francisco TO SEE the fog!
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of the trip was a reunion. We stayed at a hotel in Chinatown, and altogether had a great time.
ReplyDeleteThe US ought to get it together and describe distance in kilometers, not hours. You people are so uncivilized.
ReplyDeleteW. Rocket, what is the formula for calculating kilometers from hours? Cannot find it anywhere.
ReplyDeleteHe wants to wantonly kill Irish meters all the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd he calls us uncivilized.
xoxoxoBruce